LSU women overcome sluggish first half to defeat Alabama 63-61

BATON ROUGE -- At times Sunday, it looked like the LSU women's basketball team was suffering from an emotional hangover.

Adrienne Webb

The Lady Tigers, who squandered an 18-point lead in a 63-61 loss to South Carolina on Thursday, led Alabama 8-2 about seven minutes into Sunday's game but were struggling offensively. Things were similar at the beginning of the second half, when the Crimson Tide unloaded an 8-2 run to cut its deficit to six points after LSU led by 12 at halftime.

But two big scoring runs -- 13-2 in the first half and 14-0 in the second half -- propelled LSU (11-6, 1-2 SEC) to a 72-43 win against Alabama at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

LSU avoided an 0-3 start in the SEC for the first time since 1995.

"If there was ever a team that needed a win, the Lady Tigers needed a win," LSU Coach Van Chancellor said. "It didn't matter whether it was pretty, ugly or whatnot."

The runs were sparked by two players: sophomore guard Adrienne Webb in the first and junior forward LaSondra Barrett in the second.

Barrett was held scoreless on only three shots in the first half, but she scored 20 points in the second half, seven during LSU's 14-0 run.

"I was just a little bit more aggressive," Barrett said. "My teammates were looking for me, I got a couple plays called and just finished. ... When your time is called, you've just got to show up."

Chancellor said Barrett's success came from her getting more touches in the second half.

"We changed the offense a little bit," Chancellor said. We'd run a play called Boston, and we just switched sides with her, got her the ball more."

Webb's scoring burst came when LSU had made only four of 14 shots about nine minutes into the game. Webb made two 3-pointers and added a layup for eight points in a run that got LSU out of its early rut.

Webb said LSU kept relying on its defense to eventually find its offensive rhythm.

"We were getting stops on the other end, which converted to us getting baskets on our end," Webb said. "With the rebounds, we were pushing the ball up the court getting fast break points, and if we didn't get those, we were flowing into our offense."

As much as LSU's offense struggled, Alabama also struggled to find its offensive rhythm.

The Crimson Tide shot only 16.7 percent from the floor in the first half and 24.6 percent for the game. Alabama made only one of its first 17 field-goal attempts and made only two of 10 3-pointers.

LSU also held Alabama senior forward Tierney Jenkins, the SEC's leading scorer entering the game, to eight points on 1-of-12 shooting, and the Crimson Tide only mustered five assists to 12 turnovers. The Lady Tigers also dominated the boards, outrebounding the Crimson Tide 54-32.

Chancellor said LSU put up its best defensive performance of the season against Alabama.

"When you consider that we turned the ball over 20 times, that would make our defense really outstanding," Chancellor said.

LSU improved to 54-5 under Chancellor when holding its opponents to less than 50 points. That run includes 11 consecutive wins.

"We were focused on playing well today, especially because it's alumni weekend," LSU junior forward Taylor Turnbow said. "We have a lot of former players here watching us play, and we wanted to put on a show for them."